San Diego lies in rolling hills and mesas that connect mountains, from the San Andreas Fault Line and the Pacific Coast shore. There are many different types of terrain in this area, which makes San Diego unique. There are about seven different types of terrain in the area: deserts, mountains, canyons, dense forest hills, shoreline, valleys, and oceans. The temperature in this area has a very wide variety as well. On the coastlines the weather stays pretty constant around the 70's. However, if you go inland to the desert, it can fluctuate from 60 degrees to 90 degrees in one day! The fact that earthquakes can occur at any time and can be almost any magnitude makes San Diego unique. Since the city lies on the San Andreas Fault line it can be completely destroyed at any moment, if there is a large enough earthquake.
The video above demonstrates San Diego's geography in a fun and different way while still providing information about the climate and landscape.
Video from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTf6ZSO1Fxg
Ten years into the future the ocean will continue to heat up and it will raise about 1 degree. Since 1950 the temperature of the ocean has raised about 3 degrees, due to global warming. (This has been shown in a study done by Scripps institute of Oceanography). In addition, the San Jacinto mountains may continue to grow because of the strike slip fault line, the San Andreas Fault. Ten years is not a long time in geological terms but there will still be some geological change.
In this photo you can the the two plates of the San Andreas fault colliding and slipping past each other.
One hundred years in the future San Diego will be facing much warmer temperatures. Weather records show that average temperatures have already increased from just one decade ago. If this growth continues there will be a dramatic change to the temperature of Southern California. Ocean levels will also increase. This is caused by global warming and polar ice caps melting. San Diego has a Mediterranean climate. Scientists believe there might be more rainfall due to more EL Nino weather events happening. This will also increase within a longer period of time. One hundred years is plenty of time to see dramatic changes to San Diego physical geography.
The video above demonstrates how global warming has continued to increase since 1987. If this continues to happen San Diego's temperature will continue to rise.
Video from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoOrtvYTKeE&feature=player_embedded
One thousand years into the future the temperature of the Pacific will be about 40 degrees higher if the ocean temperature continues to increase at the same rate it has been since 1950. Present coastal cliffs will have eroded more because weathering. This will happen because the weathering from the ocean salt water and winds will continue to build leading to more erosion. In 1000 years it is likely that a very large Earthquake will occur and cause much devastation. If this occurred it would trigger many landslides because steep slopes are not very stable. As a landslide happens this will wipe out densely forested mountain sides. So in 1000 years San Diego will probably be recovering from a large earthquake, that will occur on the San Andreas fault line. It depends when the earthquake happened to be able to predict exactly what condition San Diego will be in, plant life flourishing again or just recently destroyed.
The image above shows a landslide due to a earthquake. Although, if a larger earthquake occurred the landslide would be more severe.
